Icelands Golden Circle

Ice(cream)land:

Because of double birthday celebration during our stay, we chose to take advantage of having an ice cream shop in the Building Next door. Not bad, getting 1,5 litres of soft ice in a 1 l cup like that.



One cannot go to Iceland without visiting the Blue Lagoon, seeing a geysir and go to a public swimming pool with "heitur pottur".

Having done the first one, and tried a morning bath in Vesturbæjarlaugs steaming (thermally) hot tubs, it was time for a day of sightseeing.

It happened to be on my birthday - which I spent in a crammed bus without functioning aircondition and a mal-humoured guide.

We went on an 8-hour guided tour with Reykjavik Excursions, and we were really disappointed. Such a big company should offer way better service, and not send people off for a wWhole day in a bus without airconditioning, and on top of it all have a really grumpy guide who got offended if we asked a question...

I would not recommend going with them on a long excursion. We were two hours late back at the apartment.

It's Lucky for the company that Iceland has so much interesting to offer, because then you kind of forgot how bad everything else was.

The Golden Circle is the Classic tour on Iceland including the most famous sights:

Gullfoss, the geysir park with Stokkur erupting every 5 minutes, and the magnificent Thingvellir.

 

Despite being my birthday in the middle of July, the weather was not the best. It was foggy, chilly and wet.

Memorial for victims of traffic accidents. There is a number on the cross showing how many lives have been lost in traffic so far this year, showing 6 when we passed.

 

This is Iceland. Green moss, Black lava and fog.

The first stop was a huge greenhouse, where they showed us how to grow tomatoes so far North.

Endless rows of Icelandic tomatoes.

 

 

The drive between the sights was nothing to retell, because even if our guide and bus had been allright, we couldn't really see much.

After some hours we reached Gullfoss. Beautiful and wild - but growing up in western Norway kind of spoils you when it comes to majestetic waterfalls.

The Golden Waterfall. The folklore tells of a Young man who was so in love with a girl on the other side that he - as the only one ever - managed to cross Gullfoss to get to his beloved.  

My iPhone can't really catch the distance here. It's the canyon that the river has made for thousands of years.

Tourists.

Following the trail Down to the viewpoint.

 

Extreme amounts of Water. And look how green the vegetation is.

Gullfoss in its splendour.


After getting wet and cold seeing this huge waterfall, another two hours of bus driving awaited.

But it was worth it; Next stop was the Geysir park.

This is a Whole area where the crust is so thin that Water and steam comes up to the surface.

The famous Geysir (which gave name to the phenomenon itself) erupted frequently for decades. Now, for some reason, it is "asleep".

Fortunately, there is another large geysir, Stokkur, that also has frequent eruptions. Stokkur is the main attraction of the park today.

 

Steam boiling up through cracks in the ground. It is quite an absurd view. You feel that something is wrong, or fake, or that you are on a movie set.

 Now that's good inspiration for some folklore!

 

Oh yes, the warning sign is about the tiny stream there. Because in Iceland, you happen to find boiling Water just walking around.

 

"Litli-Geysir", the small one. It doesn't erupt, just boils along merrily.

The best part was, of course, watching Stokkur erupt. People gather around to wait for it, watching the pool of blue-green Water bubble and stir. And then, after some minutes, the boiling slows Down, the Water pulls Down into the ground in a way, and it all seems quiet. Then. WHOOIIISH! A pillar of steam and Water shoots up into the air, around 20-25 meters. A completely surreal experience, but fantastic.

I got so excited waiting for the eruptions that I literally jumped when it came, having a shock - every time.

Great fun though! Like a continuous firework.

Stokkur erupting!

 

Magical landscape. Red earth, green moss. Beautiful and hostile.

As every famous tourist attraction, the geysir park tries its best to earn Money on the tourists, having a restaurant, large shop and multimedia exhibition NeXT to the park.

One can sell anything nowadays.. How about a can of fresh air?

 

Back into the bus, and then hitting the road Again - now heading for the birthplace of the Icelandic nation, Thingvellir.

This is where the Icelanders gathered at their very first Thing in year 930, and established a kind of democracy.

In addition to that historic importance of the place, it is also the spot where the North American plate meets the Eurasian plate; the geographical border between two continents.

Pretty flowers in Thingvellir.

 

 

 

That is America right there, on the other side of the river.

The flag marks the spot where Iceland was founded over a thousand years ago. That was where the speaker of the Thing stood. It gave me goosebumps to imagine this place being full of men trying to organise their society for the first time.

 

I am really sorry I didn't have my camera. This doesn't even get near the majestic beauty of the national park. With the plates meeting behind me, I had endless green marshland with rivers (and the presidents summer residence) stretching out ahead, with Mountains rising at the Horizon.
I was completely taken aback. It is like something taken right out of "The Lord of the Rings". I wanted to just walk out across the plain to the end of the World.  

 

Thingvallavatn, the largest lake in Iceland, starting here.

The light that day was magical.

 

After some complications and an hour of waiting in a hot bus, we finally drove back to Reykjavik.

It is funny to see the landscape changing. As we got closer to the capital, it felt like driving into Ireland. Green field, soft hills and small houses spread across countryside.

An occasional herd of Icelandic horses broke the Irish illusion.

For those WHO don't know, the Icelandic horse derives from the horses the vikings brought from Scandinavia. The race is kept pure by forbidding other horses to enter Iceland, where the Icelandic horse is the only race.

They are small and tough, thriving in such harsh climate. They are to be found in the wild as well.

We actually saw a Whole stable of the running Down a hill, but I was too slow. Here you have three of them.

We were exhausted after the trip (and lack of comfort).

Allthough, it was my birthday.

So we went out in the rain and Down to Reykjaviks center to find a nice dinner.

Again, we ended up at Restaurant Caruso. Lovely place.

And finishing my 22nd birthday with creamy lobster pasta and Icelandic beer isn't too bad!

Egils Gull - the gold of Egil Skallagrimson.